Plan your visit. 225 Madison Avenue at 36th Street, New York, NY 10016.

Plan your visit. 225 Madison Avenue at 36th Street, New York, NY 10016.

De ludo scachorum

Accession number
MS M.650
Object title
De ludo scachorum
Display Date
between 1400 and 1425.
Created
England, between 1400 and 1425.
Binding
19th-century brown morocco, stamped and blind-tooled; central border with mesh design surrounded by a chain border; binding signed by Francis Bedford.
Credit line
Purchased by J.P. Morgan (1867-1943) in 1920.
Description
90 leaves (1 column, 22 lines), bound : vellum ; 210 x 150 mm
Provenance
Owned in the 16th century by Francis Bourne, a gift from his uncle (inscription on fol. 1); erased 19th-century inscriptions by John Longly on front flyleaves; purchased by Henry Huth from Quaritch in 1875 (A.H. Huth, Catalogue of the Library, London, 1880, I, p. 288); A.H. Huth sale (London, Sotheby's June 6, 1912); second day, lot 1445) to Maggs; Rev. John Henry Ellis (his sale, London, Sotheby's, June 30, 1913, lot 42) to Leighton; his sale (London, Sotheby's, Nov. 14, 1918, I, lot 203) to Maggs; purchased by J.P. Morgan (1867-1943) from Giuseppi Martini in 1920 (catalogue 15, no. 16).
Notes
Ms. chess manual; written in England in the first quarter of the 15th century.
It is said that the manuscript was formerly bound with a copy of Aristotle's, Secretum secretorum (Huth sale, first portion, Nov. 16, 1911, second day, lot 265) that was purchased by Halle--Cf. De Ricci.
Script
textura and bastarda
Language
Latin
Century
Classification